Space Sweepers (2021) [Film Review]

Space Sweepers; or, Guardians of the Orbit
     Uncle Tae Ho, you wanna know something? There’s no up or down in space.Nothing out here is better or worse than anything else. That’s because everything out here has its special place. That’s what dad always says.
I admit that this particular review is slightly unplanned and out of the blue. Space Sweepers came to my attention a little over a year ago when I read an announcement about the production, but I forgot about it later. This week, however, when the film premiered on Netflix, the internet is exploding inside-out with the hype! Needless to say, I went with the flow and checked it out over the weekend. After over 2 hours of ridiculous fun, I can safely say that this is a legit space opera made in South Korea.

Release Info

Directed by: Jo Sung Hee Starring: Song Joong Ki, Kim Tae Ri, Jin Seon Kyu, Yoo Hae Jin, Park Ye Rin

Language: Korean Original Title: 승리호 Runtime: 138 min

Synopsis
Space, the final frontier which eventually became humanity’s last hope. In the year 2092, Earth is basically an uninhabitable place for people. A private company known as UTS, owned by a 150-year-old physicist, James Sullivan (Richard Armitage), built a special space station on the Earth’s orbit, but it is limited only to a privileged group. We follow the misadventures of the crew of a ship called The Victory. While competing with other sweepers, Captain Jang (Kim Tae Ri), Tae Ho (Song Joong Ki), Tiger Park (Jin Seon Kyu), and Bubs (Yoo Hae Jin) collect space junk for money in order to stay afloat in a grey area where they are deemed as non-citizens. All of a sudden, they find a humanoid robot Dorothy (Park Ye Rin). The child is wanted by the authorities because she is said to be a weapon of mass destruction; however, the Victory crewmembers discover that the child can influence the nanobots in her surroundings and thus create plant life.

Victory to the Brave
The science fiction genre still seems to be the uncharted territory for Asian Cinema. The Wandering Earth from 2019 clearly showed that filmmakers from the East want to give Hollywood a run for their money, and Space Sweepers movie follows this trend. Allegedly, director Jo Sung Hee spent 10 years on just writing the screenplay. After assembling the budget of roughly 20 million dollars (nearly 13 times less than the financial resources of Rise of Skywalker flick), the production was given the green light. Nevertheless, an unexpected strike of the pandemic forced the producers to distribute the picture via Netflix where it debuted at number 1 spot on the 5th of February, 2021.

Although the budget may appear to be small in comparison to Hollywood blockbusters, it is really hard to spot the technical shortcomings in Space Sweepers. The CGI is decent and the scenography absolutely stunning! The team behind the movie was clearly inspired by the motifs from Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982) while creating the reality of "used future". All the spaceship interiors, props, and costumes are a pleasure to look at.

In terms of its overall style, Space Sweepers is not as serious as the aforementioned sci-fi classics. There are light-hearted moments, epic space battles as well as tear-jerking K-Drama bits. I think it is best to describe the film as an amalgam of Firefly (2000) and Le Cinquième Élément (1995). Just like in these two pictures, we have a likeable crew of underestimated mavericks and an other-worldly being who is a key to saving the world.

This does not mean that the movie is free from disadvantages. During the first 20 minutes, the viewers are exposed to some highly extensive exposition. If you will not pay enough attention, you may feel confused later on. In addition, the main protagonists could have been better fleshed out (only Tae Ho gets proper character development). To be honest, there is so much going on in the story (villains chasing heroes from point A to B, unraveling the true nature of Dorothy) that at times I thought Space Sweepers would function better as a three-episode long drama.

However, the storyline was generally presented in a coherent manner. In fact, when the end credits kicked in with Kim Tae Song’s theme song, I felt more entertained than after watching The Wandering Earth. Space Sweepers hits all the right marks of a popcorn fun fest, and presses on at a breakneck pace.

With regard to performances, Song Joong Ki and Kim Tae Ri are hands down freaking awesome in this movie! Having known the leads from dead serious roles in The Battleship Island (2017) and The Handmaiden (2016), I am surprised that they went for a space adventure flick. Additional praise goes to Jin Seon Kyu as Tiger Park and Yoo Hae Jin as Bubs. I immediately recognised Hae Jin’s voice as the robot, but I was surprised to read online that the actor actually did some motion caption as well! It is also pretty cool that they brought Richard Armitage on board. Last but no least, Park Ye Rin is super sweet as Dorothy.

Recommendations
Go ahead and check out Space Sweepers. In order to fully appreciate the viewing experience, I suggest you play it on a large TV screen and use headphones (sound editing is also top notch!). All in all, it may not be a Hollywood crowd-pleaser, but you don’t need the “made in America” label of approval to enjoy this film. It perfectly knows what it is and has a heart in the right place.Overall score: 8/10

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